Lightning Storm
by TheSpriteOfJayum
Summary: An inside-out look of the brain of a thirteen-year-old boy diagnosed with a neurological disorder.
1. 1 - Waking Up

**Wow. A fanfic for Inside Out. Boy, am I brave. Especially since this movie hasn't come out yet.**

 **Becoming a fan of this movie and watching the brain freeze gag in the trailers, I thought of one thing.**  
 **A seizure is the result of abnormal electric activity in the brain. A good way to put it is having a lightning storm inside the brain. This brought me to a question. If brain freeze results in the headquarters and Emotions being encased in ice, then wouldn't there be a series of lightning bolts striking here and there in the brain during a seizure? Not to mention the consequences of said event.**

 **Dark, I know. This only came to mind due to me having a history of seizures and having an interest in what goes on before, during, and after a seizure. And not me just being some sick sicko.**  
 **I didn't want Riley to be dealing with having a seizure. So I created (and present to you) Erik, an unofficial OC, to be the character in this story.**  
 **Let's begin!**

* * *

His barely open set of hazel eyes lazily traced the poster-decked wall next to his bed. The eyes trailed down to the wooden bedside table to where his radio alarm clock was.

 _6:50_. Erik tiredly thought, reading the time. It was ten minutes before his alarm would go off. He snuggled tightly under his comforter.

* * *

 _"Mmmm…" Joy sighed. "This is so nice and warm. I don't wanna get up."_

 _"And we won't have to…for a mere ten minutes." Anger added tiredly with a small pinch of sarcasm, looking at today's issue of **The Mind Reader**._

 _"I know." Joy replied dreamily._

* * *

Erik, still half-asleep, thought about last week. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and half of Friday were spent worrying about and studying tests for the end of the semester in school. For the middle school student, it was pretty stressful. It didn't help much with having to deal with high hopes from his dad and competition with his straight-A older sister (not to mention she was a high school sophomore).

Yet the weekend proved worthy of that crazy week. It was his friend Gable's thirteenth birthday, and the most exciting party in his life was thrown at his house. Many of the gifts received consisted of video games and Nerf guns sets, which resulted in an almost all-night festival of video game tournaments and Nerf gun wars in the living room. Dinner and midnight snack consisted of Gable's favorite foods: pepperoni pizza, different kinds of Coca-Cola (aside from Diet), cheddar popcorn, assorted flavors of Pringles chips, and fruity frozen yogurt sorbet.

Two days ago…

 _"Woo hoo!" Anger cheered. "Go get that sucker! Kick their butts!"_

 _"He's gonna get shot, he's gonna get shot…" Fear peeped through chattering teeth._

 _"Um, there's a pillow-and-ottoman barricade he and Corbin are hiding behind." Disgust pointed out."As long as those two stay behind that, they should be okay. It's not like they're gonna be nuked or anything like that."_

 _Hearing that, Fear wrote down 'atomic bomb' on a small handy notebook to be added later to the never-finished list of negative harmful outcomes. "A-T-O-M…" He spelled out loud._

* * *

BAM! A small rubber-tipped foam bullet had hit Erik on his upper left arm.

* * *

 _"WE'VE BEEN SHOT!" Fear screamed._

* * *

"Man down! That's three!" A boy named Bailey shouted.

"Erik, you're out!" Harold, a boy from the 'enemy's side', called.

* * *

 _"No fair!" Anger cried. "We didn't even see that coming!"_

 _Sadness sulked. "It's the way it works sometimes." She mumbled disappointedly and walked away to sit down on a magenta sofa-like piece of furniture._

 _"Well, it shouldn't!" The brick-shaped emotion protested._

 _Joy shrugged. "I hope Erik's team wins!" She said excitedly with a smile on her face._

* * *

While Erik's team didn't win that night, it was still lots of fun. Time flies when you're having fun, and boy that was proven for sure as the birthday boy and his guests stayed up until six in the morning. By the time the preteens and newly-teenagers began closing their eyes, the sun was peeking up from behind the trees.

(end of flashback)

Erik smiled. He couldn't wait until his thirteenth birthday. He looked at the big calendar on his wall, graffiti-ed with schedules and important events. He barely saw the small image of the following month.

 _Thirty-eight more days_. He thought happily. Aside from the lifestyle and sometimes _Mean Girls-_ like drama his sister and her friends could impose from high school, he thought being a teenager seemed pretty cool…sweet…awesome.

He nodded back to sleep…but not for long.

 _*beep!* *beep!* *beep!* *BEEP!* *BEEP!* *BEEP!* *BEEP!* *BEEP!* *BEEP!*_

His alarm clock kept sounding off louder and louder. Erik moaned in frustration. He didn't get that much sleep the past week from those nights studying and that party.

Seven o'clock, the alarm's screen said. Erik thought a bit. After ten seconds, he pressed down on the 'Snooze' button (set carefully for ten minutes). Waking up at 7:10 wouldn't hurt. He could worry about getting ready for school within fifteen to twenty minutes, not like his sister's thirty to forty minutes. He fell asleep again.

* _beep!* *beep!* *beep!*_

Ten minutes went by fast. Erik was NOT happy.

* * *

 _Well, neither was Anger_.

 _"You've gotta be kidding me." He grumbled._

 _Disgust sighed, a little aggravated at the situation. "C'mon, Erik." She coaxed, pressing a few knobs and switches. "We don't want to look rushed like we've crawled out of a bombsite."_

 _"Ummm…" Sadness hummed. "Something seems wrong."_

* * *

Something was wrong indeed. Erik began to crawl out of bed but noticed one thing that prevented him from doing it the way he was used to.

He looked at his right arm. From the elbow down, it lay limp and lifeless like a rag doll. It felt thick and hard like a rock yet still a bit fleshy on the outside. He couldn't move it. He couldn't feel anything through it.

* * *

 _Fear began panicking and biting down on his lower lip. This was SO not right at all._

 _"It's probably just morning numbness." Sadness indicated._

 _"Yeah, that." Disgust added. "Everybody gets that every once in a while."_

 _Joy giggled. "It kind of feels like the numbing in your cheek after the dentist's office."_

 _Disgust and Anger rolled their eyes and grumbled. **Let's not think about that again.** They thought in unison, remembering the moments of being frustrated at the temporary inability to look, talk, or eat normally._

 _"Come on." Disgust insisted. "We need him to look good for school."_

* * *

Erik got up, assured that it was just morning numbness. And not only did his arm feel that way, but also his right lip. It slumped alongside his face and felt even worse than Novocain. Oh well, he had more important things to worry about. He dragged his way down the hallway to the bathroom. The light was on, and did the spraying of warm water from the shower just shut off?

"Seriously?" He wanted to sigh. Which he did, but not coherently. This caught him by surprise.

* * *

 ** _Not only does Erik probably look awful, but he sounds awful._** _Disgust thought. **Why does he sound like that?** She looked at the four other Emotions. "Did you guys hear that?"_

 _The Emotions stood silent. They were just as dumbfounded and scared as she was. They tried to shake off the fear and shock of what was happening._

 _"Never mind," Sadness stood up, shaking but trying to be strong. "We straighten our hair in the bedroom and take a shower after school." Disgust cringed._

* * *

His feathers ruffled, Erik turned around to face his open bedroom door. Frozen, his vision in the faint morning light began to blur—like he had severe myopia. His legs became jell-o, and his knees suddenly buckled under his weight. 

* * *

_"He's falling! No!" A quaking Fear cried. "NO!" He ran quickly to the console and urgently threw down one or two of the throttles. The preteen boy had fallen to his knees, but there was still a chance that his body wouldn't meet the carpeted hallway floor. Fear hurriedly pulled at a lever next to his right hand but failed to lift it up all the way._

 _It was stuck._

 _"His right arm isn't working!" Joy remembered. The Emotions hadn't experienced this blurry of vision since he was a baby but could make out the right hand hanging motionless and not responding to the brain's commission to move._

 _An identical switch near the purple Emotion's left hand was pulled immediately. The fuzzy figure of Erik's left arm pushed against the floor, keeping him upright._

 _They tried to smile through their fright. Even Joy could barely get a half-smile in._

 _Sadness couldn't believe what she was seeing. She quietly stepped away from the console and her associates. Her chin quivered and her eyes were barely beginning to leak. She wanted to burst out and cry and sob but couldn't. This was so overwhelming. The quintet, as Erik's emotions, was trying to do whatever they could do to help him. They were barely succeeding._

 _But they couldn't fail. They just couldn't, could they? That was a question everyone was asking themselves._

 _It felt as if time slowed down. As they tried to keep Erik safe. As they watched next to helplessly and hoping with their hearts that he would be okay._

 _A bright white flash radiated from what seemed a distance. Yet it cast a faint shadow under Sadness' small feet. Did she really see something or was it just her imagining strange things out of reaction to this living nightmare?_

 _Another blast of white light flashed again, only brighter and closer. She turned around to see the rest of the brain in time for another brighter and stronger flash. The floor underneath her lightly shook._

 _By now everyone had noticed slight flashes and the floor quaking, but they refused to let Erik leave their sight. But the most recent flash had caught their attention. Not only were those flashes of light getting brighter and closer, they were becoming more frequent. The emotions barely looked behind over their shoulders in time to see complete white._

 _Then complete darkness._


	2. 2 - As Believable as Hell Freezing Over

**Oh my goochies! Thank you all so much for the reviews! I'm on summer vacation now and thought I'd post at least one chapter before the movie comes out! GAH! So excited right now!**

She had come out of the shower about three minutes ago and was dressed in a tan-colored, midriff-revealing shirt and her favorite pair of jean capri pants. The cold sopping wet ends of her hair touching her bare lower back didn't make her too happy at all. But there was one quick way to solve it. She placed the hairdryer's plug-in into the electric socket against the wall. She liked wearing her medium-length mane down rather than up in a high ponytail or a twist bun.

Emmeline, known by family and friends as Emmy, thought she had heard a thump of some sort outside that bathroom door. She expected it to be one of her brothers, for sure.

~Inside Emmy's mind

 _"Who else?" Repugnance said, rolling her eyes. "That's what brothers do, particularly little brothers. Dad's at work, and Mom's running a few errands." She carefully watched in the mirror how and where Emmy was blow drying her light brown hair._

 _Elation finally came down from her room and joined her fellow Emotions. "Morniiinnnng" She greeted melodically, which no one responded to. She sipped at a freshly made yellow mug of coffee and watched Repugnance's work contently, silently amused by the wet hair waving about in the blowing air like a flag. "Lookin' good, Pug."_

 _"Please don't call me that." The fashionable, green Emotion grumbled, disgruntled at the nickname._

 _The headquarters interior of Emmeline's brain was like the average headquarters of the brain, only in a mix of a high school setting and pastel-colored version of a glamorous teen girl's bedroom. Even most of the Emotions had a pinch of the fashion sense of a uniform-required high school, from clothing to the female Emotions' hairstyles._

 _"It's probably Ace," Rage theorized. "Gallivanting around like that every morning. And the brat doesn't even need to have coffee or Red Bull."_

 _"Oh, go- Don't even get started on Red Bull." Repugnance mumbled and sneered at the memory of Emmy having a sip of that awful stuff and spewing it out almost right away._

 _"Well, all the more for him." Elation chimed, winking at Repugnance._

 _"And Erik isn't the type to do stuff like that." Misery pointed out, wringing her hands around the blue ponytail that reclined against her left shoulder. "He should be getting ready right now."_

 _"Well, just as long as he isn't running around and making any noise." Fright assured, trying to loosen up the tension._

 _A gurgling and choking noise sounded outside and a few feet away from the bathroom door._

 _"There he goes." Rage grumbled. "I say it's about time we tell the little poop to put a sock in it. If only we could break his little legs."_

 _"Um…" Fright thought out loud nervously. "Gurgling is okay, but I'm not too sure about the choking sound."_

 _"Even still, it's probably Ace." Repugnance sighed._

 _"Choking could mean anything…" Fright insisted. "Anything dangerous and life-threatening."_

 _"At ease, soldier." Repugnance rolled her eyes._

Frustrated, Emmy turned off the hairdryer and marched to the doorknob.

"You pesky, hyperactive, little…" The sixteen-year-old girl grumbled through gritted teeth. She turned the knob to open the door

She looked to her left. Down at the floor. So _that's_ where that choking noise was coming from. But all for the wrong reasons. In fact one of the worst reasons ever!

"Omigosh!" Emmy shrieked out in a whisper. Her heart raced inside her. How badly she wanted to scream bloody murder. "Erik!"

Erik was lying on the floor on his side. This was nothing like she had ever seen. He shook violently in rhythmic patterns. His arms and legs were contorted in random positions, and his hands were rigid. His dilated eyes seemed to want to roll into the back of his head but could only get so far back and were stuck in that position. His tongue was unconsciously being chewed on between teeth that swung back and forth between clenched and open. Saliva with a tinge of blood leaked from his half-agape mouth. His breathing was either shallow or nonexistent, and his face had turned a shade of blue.

 _Fright was screaming at the top of his lungs at pitches even shriller than the screams heard in the horror films Emmy's Emotions had watched. He pressed several buttons rapidly like a concert symphony pianist._

 _"Oh. My. Lord." Elation gawked. 'Little brother' Erik was acting like this—and even worse, involuntarily._

"Erik! Wake up!" Emmy said in loud whispers and she pulled her brother's forcefully tilting head onto her lap. "Snap out of it!" She began lightly slapping him in the face. "C'mon, Erik! Wake up!...Come on…"

"Oh, forget this, he's not coming out of this any time soon." She said frantically. She made herself stop slapping him and held his head gently in the hopes it'd stay in place. Nervously, she looked to her right. Through the doorframe of one of the bedrooms, she saw her youngest brother fast asleep in his Avengers-themed bed. "The brat had better not wake up."

 _"Because we only need_ _ **one**_ _person freaking out." Rage finished Emmy's sentence. "I mean, can you imagine…?" Misery quietly twirled a knob clockwise._

 _"What are we doing?" Elation asked, concerned. "Slapping isn't going to do anything."_

 _"We stopped already!" Rage snapped. "Thanks, Mis."_

 _Fright ran around the room in random directions like a chicken being chased by a recently unchained dog. It was a wonder he hadn't passed out already. No doubt, he was frightened._

 _Well, everyone inside Emmy's brain was frightened. In some way or another, it showed on everyone._

 _"Tell me he's going to be okay." Misery pleaded to her associates, wringing her hand around her hair once more._

 _"He should be." Elation tried to say through a sad but forced smile. "I think so."_

Emmy kept her brother close, even if he could stay on the floor. Surprisingly she had calmed down a bit, even though she was screaming on the inside.

"If only I had paid more attention in Health Class, let alone that babysitters' First Aid class." She wished through a shaking whisper. "Then I'd know what to do."

She noticed something as tears barely leaked from her eyes. Erik's shaking body was calming down. His face was still a bit blue, but he was finally breathing. In the midst of his spine-chilling, labored sighs, a moan escaped his lips.

Emmy managed a sad smile. "It's okay, Erik. It's okay." She absent-mindedly assured in a soft, high voice as if to a baby. "It's going to be okay."

 _"'Okay'?" Fright repeated, holding himself tightly behind a lime green bean bag and barely watching Erik. "Do we really, really mean that?"_

 _Elation had just pressed a few switches. She winked and tilted her hand sideways back and forth in a more-or-less gesture._

Remembering what she could from her first aid class, she rolled his deadweight body onto his side and folded one each of her brother's arms and legs into the standard recovery position. She winced at some quick, slight pain somewhere in her back and shoulder. "Must've pulled something. Gah!" Something struck her. "What the heck am I even doing?""

 _"We should call Mom." Misery said rushed. "She'd know what to do."_

 _"Good thinking, Mis." Elation patted Misery on the back._

 _"But we can't leave Erik like that." Fright protested, finally crawling out from behind the bean bag."Who knows what'll happen to him when we leave."_

 _"It's only for less than a minute." Repugnance tried to assure the panicky Emotion but in an annoyed manner, which wasn't very assuring at all. "We'll get the phone and come back up really quick."_

"I'll be right back." Emmy absent-mindedly told her unconscious brother. Unwillingly, she left her brother and ran to the house's foyer and snatched up the landline phone. She dialed her mother's number as fast as she could, messing up a couple times and trying again. There! She pressed the 'Talk' button.

~' _Oh there's no*buzz* place like home *buzz* for the holidays,_ _*buzz*_

 _'Cuz no mat-*buzz*-ter how far*buzz* away you roam,*buzz*'~_

Emmy turned around to find the source of the holiday song and buzzing coming from the kitchen counter.

 _"Oh, shoot." Rage grumbled. "Darn it, Mom."_

 _"This isn't happening." Fright whimpered._

 _"Oh, but it is." Repugnance said, believing the situation as much as she believed in hell freezing over._

Her mom had left her cell phone at home.

"Shoot." Emmy hissed, biting down on her lip.

 _"Now what?" Misery said, feeling hopeless. Her chin had begun quivering. The other four had to act fast before the Eeyore-like Emotion would break out in another crying fest._

 _"Eureka! I got it!" Elation shot, raising her hand. "We call 911."_

 _"But remember the last time we called 911, we got into big—" Fright tried to protest._

 _"Scrap it, fraidy cat!" Rage shouted and slapped away the paranoid purple Emotion. "Let's do it!"_

On a roll, Emmy hurriedly punched in the three-digit phone number and Talk button and hurriedly flew up the staircase. She had barely reached the top of the stairs when the dispatcher picked greeted.

 **"911. Where's your emergency?"**

"54147-South-Blanton-Street!" Emmy blurted her sentence as if it were a single long word.

 _"Easy does it." Elation coached, trying to gradually guide Fright away from the console. "I know just happened is a good legit reason to be scared—"_

 _"But now we can't show it." Repugnance finished. "Emmeline's sixteen, so we've gotta act it."_

 _"Well said, Pug." Elation complemented. Once again, the green Emotion frowned._

 _Elation pressed two buttons in a gentle rhythm._

Emmy mentally took a few deep breaths as it probably wouldn't' sound best for the dispatcher to hear prolonged puffs over the speaker.

 **"What's your emergency?"**

"So…my brother was spazzing out in the hallway upstairs…he was unconscious, he wasn't breathing…"

 **"What time did he start spazzing?"**

"Erm…" She picked inside her brain. "I wasn't there when he started. I saw him spazzing at about 7:20."

 **"How long was he spazzing—convulsing?"**

 _"How should we know?!" Rage shouted. "Who the H-E-double-hockey-sticks is calm enough to track how long?!"_

 _"That's what the word was." Misery said. "'Convulsing'. Rats!"_

 _As much as Elation tried to take control of the situation, Fright wouldn't leave the console alone, thus a pinch of fear escaped through Elation's effects._

"I don't know, ma'am." Emmy responded nervously.

 **"Has he stopped convulsing?"**

"Y-yes."

"What's your name and address?"

"Emmeline, Emmeline Netzel." She said more calmly. "My address is 54147 South Blanton Street."

 **"Okay, Emmeline. I'll send some paramedics over to assess what just happened with your brother."**

"Okay."

"Sis…?" She heard a weak call. Emmy smiled, sadly but with relief.

She returned to the phone. "Thank you very much. He's awake now. Thank you."

 **"You're very welcome. You may hang up now."**

Emmy pressed the 'End' button to hang up and turned to a barely awake Erik.

 _"Thank goochies!" Fright sighed. Everyone heaved a large sigh of relief and collapsed to the floor. The lavender Emotion shot back up, standing up straight. "Seriously, though, is Erik okay?"_

 _"Well, let's find out." Elation answered._

"Hey, Erik," Emmy called softly, smiling. "How're you feeling?"

 _"'How're you feeling'? 'How're you feeling'?!" Anger repeated before replying sarcastically. "Just peachy! We've never felt better in our lives!" In all reality, he felt like he was having a hangover._

 _"What happened?" Fear asked anxiously. All he could remember was being in total darkness and pain—surges of stinging pain._

 _"How should we know?" Disgust pointed out. "We just fell asleep in the hallway." She silently reviewed what she just said when her eyes shot wide open in shock and slight repulsion. "Why did we fall asleep in the hallway?"_

"Look at me." Emmy continued to talk in a calm, light voice, hoping this would conceal how freaked out she was.

Erik drowsily looked up at his sister. He smiled before saying, "Hi, sis." Thing was his s's was a mix of 's' and 'f'.

"How're you feeling?" She asked him again.

"Ogay." He responded. "Ti-yud (Tired)."

 _"Okay, we fell asleep and woke up after a while. So, why do we still sound like a drunk?" Disgust asked. "We'll try again, but we'll put more emphasis into an exact pronunciation."_

 _"Kmph!" Disgust, Sadness, Fear, and Anger heard the combination of a snort and a suppressed laugh from the corner._

 _"What's so funny?" Sadness asked._

"Em?" Erik called, attempting to speak clearly.

' _Okay, that was a little clearer' Erik's Emotions thought in unison._

 _Meanwhile, Emmy's Emotions were in mildly peaceful spirits but still extremely cautious after what just happened._

 _"Okay," Elation said, finally smiling without any force behind it. "He's awake—_ and _talking. Now that's what I call progress."_

 _"Could be." Fright noted. He remembered at least something from those health classes. "Of course, slurred speech is one of the main symptoms of a stroke. But did they ever say a stroke involves convulsions?"_

 _"Not that I recall." Rage shrugged. "Somebody check on him again."_

 _Fright remembered the age-old method of testing how functional a person was after being unconscious—well, at least knocked out. He quickly twisted a knob._

"Hey," Emmy called. "Erik?" The teenage girl held her hand a couple feet away from her brother's slightly puffy face. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

 _"That old one?" Repugnance raised her upper lip._

 _"It was the only one I could think of." Fright said. "For the moment."_

"Fibe." Erik responded.

 _"Wonderful, grand. Bravo, bravo."_ _Repugnance sarcastically applauded Fright's move._

 _"Well, he knows we've held up all five digits on our hand." Misery smiled. "That's promising."_

 _"So close yet so far." Sadness reported. Anger smirked. Disgust was ready to bang her head against something, but of course she couldn't mess up her neatly kept complexion. Of course, she was now finding herself brushing off smoke remnants off her cute green dress._

 _Joy smiled in a light sense of pride. She took another look at Disgust and chuckled again._

 _Disgust and Anger lightly glared at the glowing Emotion. After all, how could anything be funny in a time like this? Fear could only raise an eyebrow in the midst of his worrisome frown._

So much was on Emmy's mind. With no means to contact her parents, she hoped she was juggling at least four balls of chaos splendidly. She had probably never been so scared in her life. She finally looked at the clock on the hallway wall—7:42.

 _"This is so not happening." Fright sulked on the floor._

 _"Oh, but it is." Repugnance repeated the déjà vu, believing the situation even more than she did before._


	3. 3 - We Just Passed Out

**Again, thanks so much for all the reviews, favorites, and follows! It really makes my day! And as an FYI, I won't be accepting any requests to feature anyone or anyone's fan characters in this story.**

 _"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"_

 _Sadness and Fear tiredly cringed at the shrill screaming coming from the break room. As serious as the situation was, Joy couldn't help but chuckle every time she looked at Disgust._

 _"Lookin' good, Bride of Frankenstein." Joy complemented._

 _"Joy!" Disgust screamed, being officially the most awake being in Headquarters. "WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING EARLIER?!"_

 _As Joy had paid homage to the old monster movie heroine, the green Emotion's hair was standing almost straight on end, smoldering at the tips and ruining the perky yet meticulous trim job._

 _"That's great, Disgust." Anger said, after releasing a smirk at the epic failure of a hair style. "But we've got more important stuff to focus on."_

* * *

Erik heard his sister calling both elementary and junior high schools and saying that neither Erik nor Ace wouldn't be coming in today due to a family emergency. Well, she had to call 911, so it must be a legitimate emergency for Ace to be absent. Keeping the home phone close, Emmy had never left her side; she didn't even dare to.

* * *

 _"Are we sure he's okay?" Fright asked._

 _"For the billionth time…More! Or! Less!" Rage answered harshly, shaking his associate with each of the three annunciated words._

 _"But in reality, we're not all that sure." Misery reprimanded._

* * *

Almost seconds after Emmy finished her last phone call, the brother and sister both heard an urgent knock on the front door of the house.

* * *

 _"They're here." Fear and Fright said under their breaths in unison. "OMG; they're here."_

 _"Well, then," Joy and Elation said simultaneously, nervous but somewhat secure about the situation. "Let's get this show on the road."_

* * *

"I'll be right back. That's probably the ambulance." Emmy told Erik.

"Ooh cawed un ambuwunce?" Erik asked.

"Yes, I did. Promise me you won't freak out or bite them." She smiled forcibly.

"Ogay." He assured with a chuckle, weakly smiling at his sister. "Em?"

"Yeah?" She turned around.

"Wuh 'bow high sh-goo?" He asked.

"Don't worry; I'll get there. Even if I'm a few minutes late." She winked before dashing to the front door. She took a quick, deep breath and opened the door.

A quintet of men dressed uniformly in pine green pants and short-sleeved, button-up shirts stood at attention. A few of them had bulky, cloth-lined cases labeled with the Red Cross.

* * *

 _"This is like the army." Misery commented. "Kind of."_

 _"Only not as intimidating." Fright added, taking a gulp. "But more intimidating than a pizza delivery guy."_

* * *

"Is this the location of 54147 South Blanton Street?" One of them quickly but clearly.

"Yes." Emmy managed to say calmly. "Yes, it is." She opened the door wider to let the well-prepared crew into the house, of course while stepping out of the way. "Just follow me." She led the band towards the more specific scene of the emergency.

 **Meanwhile…**

 _"Easy, easy, not too close to the double yellow lines—AH! Watch out! Crazy driver at our left!" Mrs. Fear directed while she pulled two levers—left one up and right one down in correspondence to the steering wheel._

* * *

Surprised by this potentially dangerous encounter yet having enough common sense in this panic to keep functioning and not freeze and scream, Mrs. Netzel swerved out of the driver's way and made sure she made in back into the lane in time before another car could come through the other lane.

* * *

 _"Whew!" She sighed once the encounter was out of sight behind them._

 _"Hmph!" Mrs. Anger snorted while crossing her arms, turning away from the rearview mirror within the car. "Road hog. Nah, idiot is more like it."_

 _Mrs. Joy, ignoring the well, angry Emotion stepped up to the console and turned a knob, letting Mrs. Netzel turn the volume up on the radio._

* * *

Mrs. Netzel turned the volume up on the radio by twisting a knob, curious to see what was playing on whatever station she was listening to last.

" _I came in like a wrecking baaalllllll!_ " blared from the radio. She looked a little surprised at the stereo controls and expressed her disbelief through a smirk-tinged face.

* * *

 _"Yeah, just like that idiot driver." Mrs. Anger commented._

 _"Bleurgh! No, thank you." Mrs. Disgust sneered as she pressed a button as a sequel to her cheery, glowing associate's action. After buzzing through fifteen channels, she finally found something that definitely fit Mrs. Netzel's taste of music._

* * *

" _I'm starting with the man in the mirror, ooh!_ " played more smoothly.

"Ah," Mrs. Netzel breathed through a content smile. "Much better." She looked at the small digital clock between the air vents—7:46. "Man, who knew an errand like that would take so long." She paused, forgiving herself for taking an extended time than what she had intended. "Well, we'll be home in time to pick up the kids, drop them off at school, do some—"

* * *

 _"OH MY! OH MY! OH MY GOODNESS!" Mrs. Fear screamed. "WHAT'S HAPPENING?!"_

 _Mrs. Sadness ran post haste to the console and pushed down as hard as she could on a large button._

* * *

Pressing on the gas pedal, Mrs. Netzel made her way to the curb in front of the house. In front of her had already parked an ambulance, a fire engine, and two police cars. In the forces of adrenaline and fear of the worst, she dashed out of her parked but still running car and into the house.

"Ace! Erik! Emmy!" She called urgently. "Gang?"

"Mom?" Erik tried to reply through his weak, incoherent voice.

"Mom!" Emmy cried in relief and ran to greet her mother.

* * *

 _"Mom's here." Anger announced. Erik's Emotions sighed with relief._

 _"Even still, what happened?" Sadness asked again. Suffice it to say, that was the most popular question this morning—enough to be this morning's motto. But today was too scary to be irked by the constant repetition of said question._

* * *

"What happened?" Mrs. Netzel asked, following her firstborn.

"He started spazzing this morning." Emmy explained, totally forgetting to say the correct word for what Erik had done. "But don't worry; he's stopped."

"Oh boy." Mrs. Netzel said under her shaking breath. "I'd better call the school and tell them Erik's not coming in today."

"I took care of that. Ditto with Ace and his school."

"'Kay." Mrs. Netzel looked at the hallway clock—7:49. " _You've_ gotta go to school; we're running late."

"S'okay, Mom. I'll run like heck and get there, even if I'm late."

"All right. See you, love you, be safe." She quickly gave Emmy a kiss on the cheek. And with that, the teenager snatched up her backpack from her room and flew out the door.

* * *

 _"Thank God, we're out of there." Rage said, working with the two large handles like the handles of a motorcycle as he increased Emmy's speed in the dash to school. Luckily, it was a fifteen-minute moderate trek between home and classes. "Those guys were asking us the same questions that 911 lady asked us."_

 _"You're sure we're okay leaving everyone there?" Fright asked, wanting to look behind at the house._

 _"Yes." Repugnance said, rolling her eyes. "Remember the times Emmy and the boys got hurt? The scraped knees? Road and rug burns? Mom has always known what to do. This was our first time handling something like this!"_

 _"And we didn't do too badly at all, didn't we?" Elation swelled with pride at today's accomplishments. Nobody responded._

 _"I still hope he's okay." Fright bit down on his lip._

* * *

"Hey, buddy." Mrs. Netzel greeted, kneeling down at her son's side. "Everything's gonna be okay."

"Okay, ma'am; we'll be asking your son a couple of questions." A paramedic announced. "But you're fine to stay with him if you like."

"Mom?" A younger voice greeted behind her. "What's happening?"

 **In Ace's mind**

 _"What's the matter with Erik?" Panic asked._

 _"He looks sick. Really sick." Blues commented, squinting her eyes and almost crying at the sight. "Maybe he barfed or something." Everyone remembered last month's stomach flu incident and the all-night prayer meeting before the toilet gods._

 _"Well, thank goochies that Mom's here." Distaste smirked as she tried to be oblivious to the more than awful reminder. "Nothing she can't fix."_

 _"Wow…" Happiness whispered and leaned against the console in admiration. She was oblivious to whatever Blues or Distaste had to say. "Can you hear the sirens outside?"_

 _"It's terrifying." Panic whimpered, holding himself closely._

 _"But it's gotta be cool." Happiness finished. "Police cars, fire trucks, but forget the ambulance and whatever these guys are, para-something."_

 _"This is serious stuff, Miss Dreamer." Madness snapped, shoving Happiness away from the console. "Now isn't a good time to get our heads in the clouds."_

* * *

"Hey, pal." Mrs. Netzel sadly smiled and wrapped her hand around Ace's. "You doing okay?"

"Yeah." Ace tried to smile for his mom. "What happened?"

"Erik got very sick." The nervous woman managed to explain without getting too graphic. "These people are going to help him."

Ace grimaced at the news and the site of his mysteriously ailing big brother. "Oh," He piped. "Is he gonna be okay?"

"He should be." She reassured. "By the way, no school today."

"Okay." He stood beside his mom's shoulder, more unsure of the situation than ever.

A paramedic had caught Erik's attention. "Hold still," He instructed as he held Erik's lower left arm. A needle's single poke on his hand made Erik wince in pain. The paramedic mentally listed a few simple questions to ask. "What's your name?"

"Eh-vick." Erik answered, puzzled at a question as simple as that.

* * *

 _"'What's your name,'" Anger growled after the question was asked twice again. "What are we? Idiots? Amnesiacs? And what's with the poking? Do we look like a stinking pin cushion?"_

 _"They're probably running tests; one of the guys said that." Sadness said. "Simple ones like blood sugar, glucose levels, that kind of stuff."_

* * *

"What day of the week is it?" The same paramedic asked.

* * *

 _"What day is it? What day is it?" All five of Erik's Emotions pondered in thought. All of a sudden this was a hard question to answer; they had to really think on this one. Fear tried to recall a memory, but due to whatever had happened things were running a bit slow._

 _"Um…Tuesday!" He guessed aloud after five seconds of no results._

 _"No, it's gotta be…umm…Monday!" Disgust said from a distance, coming out once her hair was fixed._

 _"Yeah, Monday." Sadness echoed._

 _"Yup!" Anger said._

 _"Monday, it is." Joy decided and pushed a button._

* * *

"Mum-bay." Erik responded.

"Correct." The paramedic gave him a thumb-up. "And what's your name again?"

"Eh-vick."

"Day of the week?"

"Mum-bay."

* * *

 _"Monday." Erik's Emotions agreed once again a few seconds after having to think about it, and Joy tiredly pressed the same button. For some odd reason, it became difficult to remember some things._

 _"The name question is no problem." Fear said. "But the day of the week question takes a bit of work."_

 _"We all know Erik's name is Erik, and nothing else." Joy said. "And today is ummm…Monday."_

 _Anger growled at what paramedics he could see on the screen. "Okay, wise guys, we aren't that brain dead! We just can't be! We'll show you!" He turned to his colleagues. "Quick! Let's think of a basic but not too basic math problem. Fractions! What's two and one-quarter equal to as an improper fraction? Go!"_

 _"Um…" Disgust tiredly hummed._

 _Fear tried to recall the memory of a similar question from last week's math test, but it was coming up the same speed as the Monday memory. The purple Emotion shrugged in defeat. "Dunno. We're stumped. Too brain dead, I guess."_

 _"I can't think of anything." Joy pursed her lips together and looked outside at the rest of the mind to see the slow unsteady progress of the mind's mechanisms. "I know what you're asking."_

 _"We all do, Joy." Disgust told her dully._

 _"I just can't make out the answer." The yellow Emotion finished._

 _"Okay, maybe Erik's mind is that brain dead." Sadness sighed, sinking to the ground._

 _"Dang it!" Anger hissed. "Neither can I."_

 _"Oh!" Fear exclaimed. "Six divided by three!"_

 _"Two." Disgust answered, still not too happy. "It's always been two. No-brainer."_

 _Everything was silent for about half a minute as they watched paramedics run tests on Erik, ask Erik the same questions one or two more times, and discuss things between each other and Mrs. Netzel._

 _"I think I might know what probably happened." Sadness announced. She sat on the sofa in the exact same position as the Thinker statue._

 _"Oh?" Disgust responded skeptically._

 _"What then?" Fear asked, preparing to hear the worst._

 _"Erik may have just passed out." Sadness theorized. Everyone cocked an eyebrow at her. "Remember that one girl back in third grade? One day, just out of nowhere she passed out, collapsed and fell to the ground, chair and all. The school nurse came and had to check on her before taking her to the nurse's office. When the girl came to, she was groggy and weak, like Erik."_

 _"Touché." Disgust said._

 _"Good thinking, Sadness." Fear complemented._

 _"So,_ _ **that's**_ _what it's like to pass out." Joy said, aspired by Sadness' momentary brilliance._

 _"I'm not saying that as an absolute truth." Sadness pointed out. "Does passing out have any relations to the flashing lights and rumblings before things blacked out?"_

 _"Don't ask me." Anger said. "I know about that as much as you do."_

* * *

Erik was still feeling groggy and yawned. He couldn't stay on the floor for forever. With a bit more effort than usual, he pushed his arms and hands against the floor to sit himself up.

"Erik, honey," Mrs. Netzel coached. "Don't push yourself too much."

"Iz ogay, Mom." Erik assured. As much as he felt (and sounded) like a zombie, he had to show some signs of improvement. If he couldn't show it mentally or verbally, no thanks to the gruesome twosome consisting of slurred speech and weak cognitive thinking, he could at least try physically. He had managed to sit himself up—without any assistive support.

After all, he just passed out. That's the worst that could've happened.

 **So, I watched the movie. And my goochies, it was amazing! It's right up there with Up & Wall-E, and is easily one of the best cartoons I've ever seen. I've seen it three times already (obsessive, I know) and hereby declare that you must watch it. It definitely had its moments, both happy, funny, and sad—sad enough to the point I cried. I'll see you next chapter, fellow Insiders!**


	4. 4 - In the Ambulance

"All right, Mrs. Netzel." One of the paramedics stood up from his crouching position and looked Mrs. Netzel in the eye. "Looking at what tests we took of Erik and hearing the description of Emmeline, whom we presume as your daughter,…" Mrs. Netzel nodded. "…We'll need to take him via ambulance to the Emergency Room at Niemeyer's Children's Hospital."

Mrs. Netzel was perplexed of hearing the announcement. "What if I took Erik there?"

"Ma'am, if he were to start convulsing again, we would want him to be in a safe environment where he would be least likely to receive any injuries."

The image of Erik convulsing, not spazzing, in the backseat and receiving multiple injuries from banging his head, getting his arms and legs stuck, that kind of horrific stuff.

"I suppose you're right." She sighed and rubbed her head. "I'll follow you to Niemeyer's and I'll bring my younger son with me. Is that all right?"

"Yes," The paramedic nodded. "We're planning on getting Erik ready pretty soon."

"What day is it today?" A paramedic was asking Erik.

"…Mum-bay." Erik replied, still feeling groggy. He still felt pretty proud of himself for being able to hold himself up—but now with _out_ his upper arms.

* * *

 _"Alrightie!" Joy cheered, still tired. "Look, Mom! No hands—well, arms in this case! And we guessed Monday correctly…what was it? One, two, three…four or five times in a row!"_

 _"Technically it's still 'no hands'." Sadness corrected._

 _"So, how are things outside in the Mind World?" Anger asked._

 _"Mmm…" Fear hummed nervously and grimaced. "Not very much progress; things are still slow."_

 _"Shoot." Anger hissed._

 _"Ah!" Fear gasped, running quickly towards the console. "No hands_ _ **or**_ _arms!"_

 _"What're you talking about?" Joy asked._

 _"They've_ _ **got**_ _both arms—and both legs!" The tall, lanky Emotion answered, wide-eyed._

* * *

Four paramedics began to lift Erik off the floor, each one holding a limb. No one knew exactly how weak the preteen was but they were confident of the conclusion that he most likely wouldn't be doing too well strength-wise if his mental and verbal strengths were weak but soon to improve.

Erik looked around interestingly at whatever was going on. Not one, not two, but for paramedics were carrying him down the staircase. "Why four?" A tiny flick in his eyes or a slightly raised eyebrow asked. It didn't make much sense to the mentally fried preteen why manual transport was so tedious. After all, he wasn't full-grown yet, nor was he on the heavy side.

* * *

 _"And down the stairs we go." Sadness sighed._

 _"And out the door and probably into an ambulance." Disgust finished. "From what it sounds like, they won't let us ride in Mom's car."_

 _"Easy does it, easy does it, easy does it." Fear chanted. "Total strangers are carrying us out of the house and out the door and into an ambulance to take us away to some place we've never been to."_

 _"Just as long as they don't try anything wrong, just as long as they don't try to do anything wrong." Anger chanted quietly through clenched jaws, at his wit's end and more than ready to beat the living daylights out of that big sissy. He was still frightened all right, but this added nonsense was in no way helping his nerves._

 _"They're taking Erik to a hospital, not a psycho ward or some experimental science lab." Joy tried to assure Fear. Fear's spoken worries made also Joy sigh a little in frustration. Not to mention it got a somewhat annoying but funnily creepy song stuck in her head._

 _"By the way, Sadness, what is going on with your hair?"_

 _"My hair?" Sadness questioned, all of a sudden set self-conscious by the tone of her fashion-savvy cohort._

 _"Yes, your hair." Disgust affirmed. "Go look in the mirror."_

 _Sadness dashed up the slope to the break room's mirror. "Oh my." She whispered. Her hair too was singed at the ends and was stiff straight in multiple directions._

 _It seemed strange that nobody was noticing this type of things until after that blackout or whatever that was. Maybe it was because they were all too tired to notice and/or too busy taking care of Erik._

 _Anger still had that hangover's headache feeling. Emotions didn't have literal skeletons, but he could remember in the midst of whatever happened quick, sharp, stinging bolts of pain going through his box-shaped body. It was just like what Fear remembered, even though Anger didn't know that: pitch black darkness and pain—jolting episodes of stinging pain._

 _"What happened?" He wanted to ask. However, there were more important things to keep a sharp eye on. These total strangers whom they had only encountered for a mere few minutes were doing to take Erik away from home to some hospital or a place like that. Away from his parents and siblings, there was no one the Emotions could turn to for trust. As Anger said, just as long these guys don't try to do anything wrong._

* * *

A processional had formed down the staircase and the brief way to the front door. Two paramedics in front carried again-bundled equipment in those strict secure cases. Then came the remaining four paramedics and Erik, the star of this morning's horror show. Last in the line was Mrs. Netzel, purse on her left side and Ace still in his pajamas and wrapped in a blanket resting on her right arm and shoulder. The first two uniformed men had already made it to the ambulance and were making preparations in the vehicle to ready their urgent excursion and make sure that their passenger would be safe.

Mrs. Netzel had just finished calling her husband at his job to tell him about what happened to Erik. Explaining exactly what had happened was tough task, even if it just required a few words. He responded that he'd be on his way to the hospital as soon as he could, thanking goodness that his boss would easily understand the situation.

Following the paramedics carrying her elder son, Mrs. Netzel shut the front door on her way out. She tried to lock it as quickly as she could but under the dire stress she was feeling along with holding the lovable, live fifty-pound weight resting on her arm, it wasn't an easy task. At the satisfying _chuck!_ and _click!_ with the correct turns of the door key, she speed-walked to the car and set Ace securely in his booster seat in the back.

She turned around to see the progress of transporting Erik into the ambulance. The paramedics had just laid him down on a wheeled, elevated gurney. His legs were strapped to the bed to avoid the chances of slipping and falling onto the ground. Despite him seeming expressionless, she wondered if he was scared at all. She thought…

* * *

 _Mrs. Sadness let out a stressed yet brokenhearted sigh. "Poor Erik." She whispered._

 _If anything more terrible happened to him, a grand part of Mrs. Netzel's world and heart would die. Her three children were her world; as a matter of fact there was a whole island inside her mind dedicated to them—Mother Island. That Island was one of the top Islands in Mrs. Netzel's Mind World and was born at exactly same time she found out she was expecting Emmy._

 _The teary-eyed chubby Emotion touched a button, releasing a frown. She was reaching for another one, but Mrs. Joy stepped in to stop._

 _"Wait!" Mrs. Joy said. "We can't cry now. We have to be strong now."_

* * *

Surprisingly, Erik had caught direct eye contact with his mother. Before he would slip away into the mysterious interior of the ambulance, he weakly smiled and waved. Despite his poorly, tired complexion, an abundance of warmth and assurance twinkled from his eyes.

* * *

 _Mrs. Joy, tenderly enthralled in this moment, tapped a tiny button on the console. Mrs. Sadness had barely managed an even tinier click on her part of the console._

* * *

Mrs. Netzel sadly smiled and waved goodbye as a result.

* * *

 _"Thanks, Mom." Joy said under her breath. She grinned as she tiredly but happily leaned against the console. Erik's Emotions took notice that his mom could no longer be seen._

 _"Bye, Mom." Sadness added, barely letting out a sad smile. "Now what?" She looked at the screen hopelessly._

 _"Well, there's no going back." Disgust noted._

 _"No, duh," Anger grumbled not only at Disgust's comment but also Fear trembling at how strange this moving place was and having nobody but strangers inside._

 _The Emotions looked through the screen at the interior of the ambulance. There was so much equipment on shelves everywhere. It didn't have the best lighting so most everything had a dark tinge to it. It seemed a bit cool, like the equipment they saw on the shelves of a secret agent's association base in spy movies. They didn't know exactly what each object was, but it was still pretty awesome._

 _They heard the engine of the ambulance start. That's when looking at all the epic coolness came to a halt. Through the two oval-shaped windows of the back doors of the ambulance, they watched Erik's house shrink and shrink until the ambulance turned along a bend where home sweet home couldn't be seen. This made Fear even more frightened._

 _"We are so away from home." He said shaking._

 _"Again, no, duh." Anger said._

 _"But," Joy cut in, trying to calm down Fear. "From what at least I heard, Mom should be following us."_

 _"Hopefully she'll have a say as to where we're going." Fear responded, trying to settle down. He lowered his voice in whispers to himself. "I just hope we're not ending up in a psycho ward or science lab."_

 _"We are_ _ **not**_ _going to a psycho ward." Disgust said. "We can hear you by the way."_

 _Joy winked at Disgust to say 'thank you.' She slid over to the wide windows to see the Mind World. She was having high hopes that the Mind World would be making some progress to recovery. She sighed with a pinch of disappointment; she couldn't see much improvement out there. With that, she skipped back to the console, all while mumbling in song, "They're coming to take me away, ha ha! They're coming to take me away, ho ho, hee hee, ha ha! To the funny farm! Where life is beautiful all the time…"_

 _"More needles?" Anger questioned in disbelief of another outrage._

 _"No, just the one." Sadness reprimanded._

* * *

The paramedic sitting in the back next to Erik pulled out an unfortunately familiar face.

"Okay, Erik," He began. "I'm going to ask you to hold your left arm straight.

"M' gay." Erik responded and followed the given instructions.

The paramedic carefully yet accurately pressed the needle into the inner bend of the elbow.

* * *

 _"Ow." Sadness whimpered. She could almost feel the pain of a tiny injection into her own elbow. She bit down on her lower lip and squinted her eyes almost shut as she turned a knob to shrink the view from the screen into a slit. Finding out that the little poke was over, she brought the screen back to the normal view. "Okay the worst is over." She paused._

* * *

"Okay, great job." The paramedic smiled. Erik deserved a high-five for that, but it was less likely that the kid would be in the right condition to do that.

The next thing Erik knew is that a thin, long rubber tube laced around his lower face like a necklace being held up too high. The paramedic gracefully draped two sides of the tube in the top cleft of Erik's ear. He inserted two prongs, each one having an open hole at the end, into Erik's nostrils.

* * *

 _"Okay, that is seriously annoying." Disgust raised her upper lip. "Why do we need that? We're breathing just fine as it is."_

 _"We really don't know, Disgust." Sadness said._

 _"I never expected any of us to know, Sadness." Disgust responded._

 _Anger was still near to hitting his last wit. He really wished he could explode and let out his frustration onto the console. But a crazy outburst of well, anger coming out of Erik on that gurney would most likely get him sent to the psycho ward, which was the last thing anyone wanted._

 _Disgust sighed. "I still bet everything that Erik still looks awful…well, even more awful than what he did when we woke up."_

* * *

"Is he doing okay back there, Rick?" A paramedic in the front asked the one next to Erik.

The paramedic, Rick, looked at their passenger, who grinned and gave a solid nod. He smiled back and answered his colleague, "For sure."

Erik looked through the long windows in front of him. The ambulance had barely come out of his hometown and dove into the ever-moving highway. A couple of cars behind him appeared a very familiar car—his mom's car. He couldn't make out Ace but could barely see his mom. She looked stressed. He doubted she could see him.

* * *

 _"Poor Mom." Fear lamented, beginning to imagine what was going on in her head just by looking at her expression. "I bet anything she's probably more scared than we are."_

 _The other Emotions raised an eyebrow at him, as if saying, "We?" He chuckled sheepishly._

* * *

"I went to Belgium last year." Rick began talking to Erik. "In Europe?"

"Coo." Erik responded, unsure as to what to think of going to some European country he barely heard about.

* * *

 _"Hey, hey, hey!" Joy chimed. "Did you hear that?"_

 _"Hear what?" Disgust asked. She pointed to the paramedic. "Him? What's so cool about Belgium? Pft! We only said 'Cool' just to be courteous."_

 _"No, after the guy talked about Belgium." Joy corrected, beaming in an ear-to-ear grin. "We used to say 'goo' for cool, but just now we said—"_

 _"The C sound instead of 'G'." Disgust finished and smiled back. "Great! We're finally getting somewhere, though we haven't gotten to 'L' sound yet."_

 _Internally, each Emotion cheered over the accomplishment but continued to pray that their boy would be okay by the time this mess was over._

* * *

Rick continued, "I spent most of October there, of course, visited Brussels for a few days." Erik continued to give the man his attention in semi-interest. "One of my favorite places to visit—or tour, rather," He chuckled sheepishly. "…was the University of Brussels. "There I got to see the place on the campus where the first Solvay Conference took place."

* * *

 _"Solvay Conference…" Sadness repeated the name._

 _"Yeah, Solvay Conference." Anger said but started to ponder along with at least one other Emotion. "I recognize the name, but what was Solvay again?"_

 _"That's right!" Fear snapped up straight and pushed a few buttons on the console to bring back a memory sometime from last summer vacation. Watching a memory with a few other memories behind glide up the recall tube, he saw Learning Island, an island that looked like the top of a desk with books, pens, paper, and a flexible lamp on top, slowly but surely moving to Erik's lifelong fascination in learning whatever piqued his interest._

 _The golden memory landed on the stick-shaped projector and played the memory of skimming over a few pages in a book about 20_ _th_ _-century scientists. The observant browsing stopped at a black-and-white myriad of solemn-faced geniuses. Sure enough, Solvay Conference was in there—the first one took place in 1911._

* * *

"Nineteen ewuh-ven." Erik responded, trying to pronounce his words more clearly. "Rad-yay-sun an the Guh-wanta. Righ?"

"Yep, 1911." The paramedic confirmed. "Radiation and the Quanta."

* * *

 _"Well, that was easy to remember." Joy noticed, resting a finger on her chin. The fact about 1911 being the year of the first Solvay Conference was a piece of some knowledge that a good number of people didn't know. Ironically, this was much easier to remember than what day of the week it was—um…Monday, was it?_

 _She turned around and watched Learning Island; sure enough it was up and running. As happy as she was at the site, she and the others had to keep up with whatever Rick was talking about._

* * *

"As it turns out, they don't have the Conference at the University anymore." Rick continued.

"Reall-eh?" Erik asked, wanting to learn more.

"Nowadays, they have it at some hotel somewhere in Brussels. So it's still in Belgium. The last Conference that happened was when I was in Belgium." He chuckled. "Perfect timing, right?"

"Yeah." Erik couldn't help but grin back.

Rick sighed with a smirk. "Unfortunately I didn't get to be there."

* * *

 _As the preteen's interest was running full speed in spite of his brain's yet-to-arrive full recovery, Joy was typing cheerfully at the console like a student taking notes whilst listening to a classroom lecture. Many points in this discussion didn't feed the interests of the Emotions, but still; this was the kind of stuff Erik loved. They were in charge of keeping note of whatever fed his interest; after all, they didn't want him to have a brain with nothing cool learned and stored inside. A couple of the Emotions had to admit: a few tidbits of what Erik and Rick were talking about were pretty cool._

 _Old memories were recovered, and new memories were made as the Emotions listened with a mix of pleased and dreamy expressions as if hearing a very good story. The Train of Thought delivered various facts about what facts were remembered from the book or about Solvay Conferences._

* * *

The discussion began to close when a puzzling question popped up that made Erik have to ponder. "So, do you know what the latest Solvay Conference was about? The one in Brussels last October?"

* * *

 _"Oh, great!" Disgust said. "What do we do? I don't even think we know this one."_

 _"We don't!" Anger confirmed. He pushed a button to receive at least something about last year's Solvay Conference. No results. He angrily slammed his fist multiple times. Nothing. He growled._

 _This came to show that while Erik was making progress, things weren't quite back up to par yet. Nervously biting down on his lower lip and trying to think of at least something, Fear sputtered and held himself. He waddled inch by inch towards the console in the hopes to help Erik._

 _"We'll just make a wild guess." Sadness finally suggested. "Anything science-y that sounds like physics."_

 _"Whatever!" Anger responded. "Something-quantum-something. Legit enough!"_

 _"Yes!" Fear spat out, somewhat satisfied by the proposition for the guess. He quickly pressed down on a button._

* * *

"Guh-wanta…Thee-ree?" Erik guessed, hoping he was correct or at least close to being correct.

"No, not quite." Rick responded. "Quantum Theory was talked about in the Conference beforehand, in 2011. Theory of the Quantum World. Last year's was Astrophysics and Cosmology. But can you guess who was there?"

* * *

 _"Dang it!" Anger loudly whispered before mentally cursing Yosemite Sam-style._

 _"Well, now we know." Disgust said. "Now…for this question. Who was at the Conference last October? It can't be Einstein?"_

 _"No," Sadness said. "Einstein's been dead for about 60 years now. Didn't scientists take his brain out after he died?" The mere subject of Sadness' question made Disgust want to barf her own brains out._

 _"How about Stephen Hawking?" Joy suggested after remembering herself watch parts of some movie about him a few months ago._

 _"Sounds good." Sadness said. Fear gave a thumb up. Disgust simply smirked. Anger nodded in approval. With the unstoppable agreement, Joy submitted the probable answer._

 _"Well, this is a nice moment." The Emotions thought in unison as another bright yellow memory joined the previous negatively multi-colored memories. In the midst of the internal and external chaos happening, it was nice to have a ray of sunshine._

* * *

"Stephen Haw-ging?" Erik guessed.

"Yes." Rick said. "One of the many faces in that band of scientists." He turned to look at one of the other paramedics with an overall satisfied expression. "Hey, Ben!" He called. "We've got another science buff back here!"

 **The paramedic science thing is based off a friend's telling of herself during an ambulance ride, only it was about a pinch of French history, mainly about Marie Antoinette. Cool, huh?**

 **Any hooskets, thanks to all for the faves, watches, and reviews! They are greatly appreciated, and I am most flattered. See you Insiders soon!**


End file.
